This lecture explores the final five universal themes in art: "Looking Outward: The Here and Now," "Looking Inward: The Human Experience," "Invention and Fantasy," "The Natural World," and "Art and Art." It examines how these themes are represented through various artworks, highlighting their cultural and historical contexts.
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hi class in today's lecture video we're
going to be
continuing our discussion with the
so of the eight themes that we're going
to be discussing in this class we
already have discussed the sacred realm
politics and social order and stories in history
history
so today's lecture is going to be
looking at our five remaining themes
looking outward the here and now
looking inward the human experience
invention and fantasy
the natural world and an art and art
looking outward in the here and now so
this is the idea
of kind of living in the moment you only have
have
you only live once you only have one
life so becoming more aware of the world
around us not just passing through it
or kind of like looking ahead
so one artwork that we see that
represents this idea
is called gas by edward hopper so this
would have been
everyday world of the mid 20th century america
america
first time in which we have a car that
is accessible to the majority
this idea of the open road being able to
hop on a road
and just kind of take off and be able to
go wherever you want live in the moment
and not really have to focus on certain responsibilities
responsibilities
the road here is a symbol of travel time
that continues essentially beyond the
frame of the composition
we're also seeing the use of some great
complimentary colors throughout
the green with the red as well as the
blue and the orange that are being
represented here really kind of pop and
make the
um the painting um
kind of stand out to the viewer be
aesthetically pleasing
inward the human experience so this has
to do with the consequence of the human condition
condition
so all of us doesn't matter where you
grew up how much money you have
any of those ideas we as humans all have these
these
uh specific feelings and emotions so
doubt wonder happiness sorrow loneliness
despair these are concepts that we can
all relate to
because we are all men the image that
we're looking at here is called talking skull
skull
so this is a sculpture made of bronze
the idea that's being represented here
is this wish to speak to those who have
came before
us that have passed on so
the desire for communication beyond the
boundaries of our lifetime
and that's what's being represented here so
so
um the boy that we're seeing here we
notice that he is
almost completely nude we just have a
little cloth that's covering him
and so this idea of uh being nude
and being vulnerable is something that's
oftentimes associated together
in art so because he's nude we're
getting the sense of vulnerability
um him being trying to open up to
someone who has passed away
frida kahlo is another figure
in art that we can associate with this concept
concept
this is a self-portrait with monkeys by
her from 1943
and essentially here frida kahlo or a
little context on her
she was in a tragic streetcar accident
she had to undergo several surgeries
throughout her life
she was in constant crippling pain
unable to bear children
so all of these different ideas of her
kind of being taken away from this world
that she was in
is being represented in this particular piece
piece
so this affirmative that she still exists
exists
that she still is very much here she is
very proud
she we have the bird of paradise in the
background this idea of
being exotic proud very desirable
and that is all represented in this
particular painting
invention fantasy so bringing the
imaginary world to life before our eyes
one of the most famous artists to
represent this concept
is an individual by the name of
hieronymus basque and this can be seen
in his very puzzling piece which is
referred to as garden of earthly delight
so this is representing
the garden of eden the world before the flood
flood
as well as hell and some of the imagery
throughout here obviously is not
imagery that is naturalistic to the
world around us this is
all imaginative um and that's what's
being represented within this piece
the natural world so this is the idea that
that
nature and our relationship to nature so
we essentially kind of are making the world
world
the environment around us we're shaping
that world and sometimes this is viewed
as a good thing sometimes it's not
necessarily viewed as kind of this
awesome concept because we are changing
the world to kind of
make our fit our needs is that
really something that is productive or not
not
so one artwork that represents this concept
concept
is referred to as the oxbow by thomas cole
cole
so this is a painting in which we have
two very different sides here so the
right side of the composition
is very serene calm sunlit this is a
settled community
so what's happening at this time in
america is we have the settlers that are coming
coming
they're traveling from the east to the
west and so that's what's being
represented by the right side of the
composition that's our east
our west is still the unknown this is
the untraveled territory that we haven't necessarily
necessarily
encountered just yet so this is our wilderness
wilderness
and what we're seeing here is kind of
the power of elements we have a thunderstorm
thunderstorm
nature there's dramatic changing moods so
so
it's a settled community um so the
civilization versus this concept of savagery
savagery
and the unknown that is beyond that this
painting also acts as a
metaphor for several different ideas
so the oxford this particular location
this is in ohio and this is something
that you could go and see today the way
that the
water is kind of curving like that
that's what we refer to as the oxbow
so some metaphors that go along with
this painting is the idea of life is
about the journey and not the destination
destination
so when we we're traveling along this
oxbow this waterway here
let's say we're trying to get from the
right to the left we're kind of getting
taken on this
crazy curve i'm way out of
the um the path of just kind of this
direct connection
so more of that concept it's about the
journey not the destination
we also see this idea of inner life
these unresolved conflicts
inner peace following a period of stress
so that can be represented with a storm
that's kind of passing through here
life may not always give you a direct
path something that you
kind of think is putting you off course
is actually sending you in the right direction
direction
so that concept of everything happens
for a reason here
so we're taking this natural world this
monumental breathtaking landscape
and we're representing that in our
painting but we're also incorporating
some of these kind of human conditions
within that as well
white clouds over chow and chang so when
we talk about asian artwork
and it doesn't necessarily matter if
it's chinese
or japanese most asian artwork
when we talk about landscapes you're
never actually going to be able to go to
the location
and see the world that's being
represented within the painting
for the most part painting in your asian cultures
cultures
is going to be a form of meditation
and so often times the artist is
inspired by nature
but they're not duplicating nature like
we saw with thomas bull's oxbow
he would have actually been at that
place at that time and that would have
been the world that he was seeing around him
him
in our asian cultures the paintings of
landscapes are
just more representing the inspiration
as opposed to an
actual physical location
not only can we paint um images of
and draw images of the landscape but we
can use
nature as a form of artwork so that's
what we're seeing here with our stone
gravel and garden
another area where we're manipulating
the land and the actual earth itself
um is a piece called spiral jetty by
robert smithson
um so this he's actually hauling all of
the different rocks
into this kind of spiral pattern that
we're seeing in the center here
oftentimes when we're working with
nature what ends up happening
is we only get to see that piece for a
short period
because the world around us is changing
so unless we have a photograph
of that we're not actually going to be
able to see that piece for
centuries on and then the last theme
that's presented
in this chapter is called art and art
and this is the making of art about art itself
itself
this is about learning about making
about viewing art
it's about nature social setting
movement styles or
other works so one way that this concept
can be incorporated
is by being inspired by previous
artworks so the top image that you're
seeing here by hokusai
there's a wood block print from a whole
series of artworks which is referred to
as the 36 views of mount fuji
there's multiple more images there's
actually over 50 but 36 is what was published
published
and so we have the woodblock print that
happens in the
19th century and then we have a
contemporary artist who's
recreating the same subject that we saw
in the wood block print but here in a photograph
photograph
so this is one way that we can use um
this theme of art about art we can talk about
about
using old artworks that have already
been made and kind of transforming them
into a new way
it can be about the process so more
about the technique of making art
so those are all ideas that are
associated with art and art you
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